20 March 2016 webinar & conference call featuring Ramón Vera Herrera (GRAIN) and Ben Lilliston (Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy)
Big Ag's interests shape global trade policy regarding food and agriculture, with profit taking precedence over planetary survival. These skewed have led to the creation of a Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade agreement text that has agribusiness corporations and industry groups delighted, but that threatens to catastrophically increase effects of global climate change, the rate of deforestation in some of the world's most biodiverse and threatened rainforest ecosystems, and the contamination of vital water supplies by expanding animal agriculture, the palm oil trade, industrial farming and other forms of unsustainable food production
In this webinar, which took place 20 March 2016, experts from GRAIN and IATP discuss two reports on corporate agribusiness' influence on the TPP and the price global climate, forests and water will pay if activists are not successful in defeating this raw deal for the planet.
Ben addresses what the global meat industry hopes to gain from TPP – and the variety of harmful impacts this industry causes for communities, the environment and health. Ramón looks at the terrible effects of free trade agreements (FTAs) on agriculture, food, health, job conditions and climate, but most importantly, on justice. On the possibilities we have to defend ourselves against all the unjust laws, regulations, norms or standards promoted by FTAs, that deeply affect our livelihoods, while opening room to move for corporations to devastate, land-grab, privatise, and submit persons to precarious conditions, making them prone to accept whatever situation suits to corporate power. It is the submission of justice to the economic powers.
See: GRAIN, "Trade deals boosting climate change: the food factor"
In addition to our featured guests, we hear from grassroots activists on actions we can take to defend our planet by exposing the threat of TPP and stopping this climate-killing trade deal from going into effect.
About the guests
Ben Lilliston has a Bachelor of Philosophy degree from University of Miami (Ohio). He previously served as IATP’s Communications Director and Vice President for Programs. He has worked as a researcher, writer and editor at a number of organizations including the Center for Study of Responsive Law, the Corporate Crime Reporter, Multinational Monitor, Cancer Prevention Coalition and Sustain. He’s a frequently published writer, most recently as a contributor to Mandate for Change (Lexington), and previously as the co-author of the book Genetically Engineered Foods: A Guide for Consumers (Avalon).
Ramón Vera Herrera, part of the GRAIN staff, is the editor of Biodiversidad, sustento y culturas, a magazine (print and electronic) published by GRAIN and eight other organisations and movements in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, México, Paraguay and Uruguay.
Organized by Trade Justice Alliance